


Hopeless

by booksandchocolatecake



Category: Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Angst, Canon Divergence, Drabble, Extreme angst, F/M, M/M, One Shot, Soul ripping angst, alternative ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-24
Updated: 2020-06-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:02:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24895846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/booksandchocolatecake/pseuds/booksandchocolatecake
Summary: The Six of Crows were beaten. Jan Van Eck won. They’re scattered and lost and hopeless. What now?
Relationships: Jesper Fahey/Kuwei Yul-Bo, Jesper Fahey/Wylan Van Eck, Kaz Brekker/Inej Ghafa, Matthias Helvar/Nina Zenik
Comments: 5
Kudos: 51





	Hopeless

The auction had been a trap. It had all gone terribly wrong. Jan Van Eck had appeared, somehow knowing all their plans, and he’d allied himself with the Shu. Most of the Crows had barely managed to get out in time. Some of them hadn’t made it. And so, broken and disheartened, in despair, they went their separate ways, never to meet again, except in another world. The horrors of Jurda Parem had been unleashed upon the world by the merchers. Most Grisha would be enslaved for the rest of their lives, to other countries and the drug itself. The Six of Crows had been so close to stopping it. But they hadn’t. And now the whole world was in mourning for what could have been.

Kaz Brekker sat down in a tiny, dirty room in the corner of the Slat and put his head in his hands. The only remaining Dreg in the Slat shouted a profanity at him and stumbled out of the room. Even getting drunk couldn’t help the man forget his troubles this time. After Kaz’s failure and public humiliation at the auction, the Dregs had disowned him. They had put their faith in him, and for what? He’d let them down. He let his crew down. He let Jordie down. He let everyone down. The Slat was empty. The once great Dregs that Kaz had built up from the ground had disbanded forever and left him to his sorrows. Inej had left, too. She had got angry and screamed at him that he was an idiot, how dare he let them down the one time they needed him most of all? His Wraith had left Ketterdam. He knew she would never come back. Kaz held Inej’s contract that he was going to give back to her in his gloved hands. It was the only thing he had left of her. He hated himself. He hated himself for not being able to touch her, for not being good enough. For letting the most incredible woman he knew slip through his fingers. So, when the Stadtwatch came knocking, Kaz Brekker, Dirtyhands, Bastard of the Barrel, went without a fight.

Inej Ghafa lay on her bed in a ship leaving Ketterdam, bound for the Wandering Isle, feeling empty. She’d dreamed of this moment for years. Getting out of Ketterdam. Now it was happening, she felt nothing. She hadn’t thought it would be like this. She’d failed. They’d all failed. Inej wanted to gag when she thought of all the Grisha who would be enslaved like she had been because of her mistakes. She knew it wasn’t fair to blame herself. But she couldn’t help it. She shouldn’t have let Dunyasha overpower her. That was a rookie mistake. Now, the whole world had to pay. She hadn’t been able to say goodbye to any of the Dregs. Kaz had made it clear he didn’t want her in his city. So she’d taken the ship going the furthest she could from Kaz Brekker and his gang. Inej looked at Kaz’s leather glove, which had fallen to the floor in all of the havoc, and held it close to her chest, thinking of her broken boy as the ship slowly sailed further and further from Ketterdam.

Wylan Van Eck whimpered and curled into a ball on the floor of his dirty cell. His father had already come in to taunt him. He’d hit Wylan and his nose was still spurting blood, and his ribs felt broken. He barely noticed. It had all been a blur. He’d gone into the hall like he’d planned and was about to do his act, exactly like he and Kaz had rehearsed the night before, when a bag had been pulled over his head. Now, he was here. In his father’s clutches. Exactly where he’d started. He prayed that his friends were okay. Jesper. Jesper had to be okay. Wylan knew logically that he might not make it, but he’d thought that what he had with Jesper was only beginning. He’d thought he’d had his entire life ahead of him. Instead, he was in handcuffs, in a dirty cell where he might have peed himself and he didn’t even know if he’d survive the night. Everything Wylan had done had been for freedom, and now it was gone. He was no better than a slave. So he clutched the yellow flower Jesper had given him the night before as he sobbed. As the executioner’s axe came down the next day, Wylan Van Eck comforted himself with the thoughts of Jesper’s lips against his the night before. He only wished he’d been able to feel it one last time.

Jesper Fahey stared at the floor as he sat slumped on a bed beside his father in their expensive hotel room. Only a few hours ago, it had been full of his friends. Full of life. Now, it was all over. In despair, Jesper had agreed to go to Novyi Zem with his father on the next leaving boat and work on the farm again. It wasn’t what he wanted. But nothing had turned out like it was supposed to. He had no way of knowing if any of the Dregs were alive. He had no idea if Wylan was alive. He thought he and the boy had an entire future ahead of them. Last night, when they kissed, for the first time, Jesper had allowed himself to dream. Of a world where he wasn’t forever alone except for the allure of the gambling tables. Colm rubbed Jesper’s back half heartedly as the sharpshooter looked at his hands, and stroked Wylan’s flute, defeated. The next day, Jesper cried until he couldn’t even cry anymore when the dead corpse of his merchling turned up on the doorstep of his hotel room.

Nina Zenik sobbed as she held Matthias Helvar’s dead body in her arms. She was on a ship to Ravka with the other Grisha. Genya had tried to comfort her, and Zoya had tried to ease the body from her arms, but it was no use. She couldn’t let go. Matthias and Nina had been running after the plan had gone to shambles when a young Fjerdan boy had shot him. She had held him and used her healing powers in vain, but nothing worked. The boy who Nina loved even more than waffles had died in her arms. The ship was going to Ravka. She would live in Ravka again. A past version of her might have felt happy about that. Now, she felt like there was a hole in her chest as she held Matthias Helvar’s corpse.

Kuwei Yul Bo stared out the barred window of his cell. It felt like he spent his entire life going from one cell to another. First he’d been on the run with his father, then the Dregs. He’d gone from being imprisoned in a Fjerdan lab, to the tomb on Black Veil, to this cell in a Kerch government building. He’d had no illusions about the success of the plan, after being captured so many times before. But after Kaz had got them out so many times before, he’d allowed himself to have a little spark of hope. That was his mistake. He shouldn’t have let himself get attached to the people he would inevitably be forced to leave. Some days, he felt more like a fifty year old man than a teenage boy. Spending time with the Dregs, developing feelings for Jesper Fahey, had let him feel like a teenager for once. And it was amazing. Sighing, Kuwei sadly put down a drawing he’d stolen from Wylan’s notebook of Jesper, and got to work making the drug that would eventually destroy them all.

**Author's Note:**

> I am so sorry you had to read that. It is the most bleak thing I’ve ever written. But I thrive in the angst *mwahaha*  
> This is the first work I’ve published so comments are really appreciated!


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